Peter Tomich was born in Prolog, a small village in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Bosnia-Herzegovina) on June 3, 1893. Twenty years later, along with his cousin John Tonic, Peter immigrated to the United States. When World War I broke out he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Though he never saw combat in World War I, he served with pride for 18 months from June 6, 1917, to January 13, 1919. Along the way, he applied for and received United States Citizenship. Ten days after his U.S. Army enlistment expired Peter Tomich joined the Navy. His next of kin information listed cousin John Tonic in New York. But for Peter Tomich, his "real" next of kin was the sailors with whom he lived and worked for 22 years. His only "real" home was the USS Utah. His MOH Citation reads "For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, and extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Although realizing that the ship was capsizing, as a result of enemy bombing and torpedoing, TOMICH remained at his post in the engineering plant of the U.S.S. Utah, until he saw that all boilers were secured and all fireroom personnel had left their stations, and by so doing lost his life."
http://www.ussutah.org/
BB 31 website.
I posted this thread because these are all "officially recognized heroes" who have won the Nation's highest award authorized by Congress and presented by the President. They represent only a fraction, a tiny fraction, however, of the countless heroes who are unsung in all the wars the U.S. military has fought.
If you wish to post a biosketch from the website I have linked, PLEASE DO! It can be from a branch of service, your homestate, a period of history you are familiar with or even a relative! I would pray that this keeps moving all weekend so that every CMOH name is mentioned.
In this way, we pay tribute to ALL OUR SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR BEST AND PERHAPS THE FULL MEASURE OF THEIR BEING FOR US! To them, we remember your sacrifices this Memorial Day!
Frank